Waiting for Jill

O my. I fear that I am becoming the master of hackneyed points. So be it.

The little hobbyist recording kit I’d bought about a year ago still has a short in it. I’m sure the company would have honored the warranty if I’d sent it in, but I’m terribly bothered by even the mildest of bureaucratic tasks and haven’t fetched the information necessary to do so.

Affordable and works well when you treat it right.

That’s why I made the video. Well, sort of. It’s part of the reason. I also just enjoy sharing my thought processes and certain “authentic” spur of the moment little events.

I really fancied the silly little vocal melody and lyrics that I’d come up with and didn’t want to forget the cadence, pitch, and rhythm. So I thought I’d record it. Given how my phone is currently my mic and camera that’s what I used.

My dog being the nosy pest that he is decided to burst in, which added to that sort of spontaneity vibe and I thought, ‘Hmm… why not just post this.’ Maybe it’ll give someone a few moments of amusement.

Most of all though, it allows me to do my favorite thing which is pontificate about creativity and process.

I think most musicians and songwriters are too busy with the act of creating and recording to bother to share their thoughts on the matter too often. How fortunate that I’m primarily a writer and philosophy nerd. This means that I analyze the ever-loving hell out of absolutely everything for what I hope is your enjoyment and edification.

I think the fantastic thing about things like the story of Jack and Jill is that they are these little archetypes. Not so much of a particular concept like ‘the maiden’ or the ‘wise man’ but more about the vibe of a thing. They transmit a certain plasticity which makes them wonderfully malleable items for the formation of lyric and poem.

All I had in my head was the name Jill for whatever reason and then obviously Jack and the blasted hill entered in by association. Generally, such nursery rhyme things evoke memories of blissful childhood, best represented by ‘the moment of sunshine,’ and so I had myself a theme and little lyrical bits I could assemble into a coherency.

Obviously, the familiarity of the story also means that it’s likely primed for a warm reception in the mind of the audience and artist alike.

Yes, there may be some contrarian hipster sorts who’d balk at something so mainstream. However, perhaps they can fall under that ‘ironic’ spell of something so bad (by virtue of hacky premise) that it’s good.

Although, now that I think about it…maybe Jill wasn’t on my mind at all. I think that I’d wanted to go to my favorite meadow in the local wood like the dirty hippy I am. Out there is where I like to soak in the sun, as I read things like Emerson, and mock myself for the fact that I actually unironically own a hacky sack. In these moments where I’m alone in solitude, I realize, that although it is a happy solitude, I am waiting for something, longing for something.

There’s a lot to long for and wait for in a universe of infinite possibilities. But one of those things which is most tangible as a representation of them all is the lover. So perhaps it was the archetype of the maiden that spurred me on all along.

I felt especially happy that the name Jill entered into my head as a result of that ‘x variable’ that was necessary to get across this crunchy vibe. Its puerile simplicity is a wonderful foil, or background, to a concept that could be weighed down by a lot of cosmic portents which would render it unfit for my current purposes. I wish to convey happy expectation not...SEHNSUCHT

So, I hope that you’ve found this to be as fun to read and watch as I had in writing and recording it.